1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a file managing method for a digital apparatus, and more specifically, to a file managing method which establishes folders according to different file types in different operational modes and store files according to the file type into the different folders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the information industry progresses, information-related products such as digital cameras and digital camcorders are increasingly used in daily life and conventional analog products are gradually being replaced by digital products. Take the digital camera as an example. Conventional film cameras utilize chemicals on a film to record images, which can be viewed after development. However, if a user wants to take pictures with special effects, the user is required to be skillful in controlling the stop, the shutter, as well as the lens and film development. These steps are difficult for an amateur. In contrast to conventional film cameras, digital cameras convert images into digital signals using a photosensor to directly store the image in a memory device. Digital cameras can also be connected to a computer system and store the images on the computer systems hard disk drive. The images can then be viewed on the screen or printed on a printer. In addition, the user can further process the images recorded by the digital camera using image processing software to produce special effects, which previously, with a conventional optical camera, could only be realized by a professional photographer. In some cases, the digital special effects could not be achieved using a conventional optical camera.
Please refer to FIG. 1 showing a front view of a conventional digital camera 10. The digital camera 10 includes a lens 12 for capturing an object, an optical viewfinder 14 for viewing the object, and a shutter button 16 for focusing and shooting. Please refer to FIG. 2 showing a rear view of the conventional digital camera 10. The digital camera 10 further includes an electrical viewfinder 18 providing another option for viewing the object, which could be a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) display, and a control button set 20 for image editing, browsing, and parameter settings. The difference between the conventional digital camera 10 and a conventional film camera is that the digital camera 10 provides the electrical viewfinder 18 for viewing the object or images captured instead of the optical viewfinder 14 which is smaller in size. Additionally, the user can browse or delete images stored in the digital camera using the electrical viewfinder 18.
Although digital cameras are becoming more popular every day, it is inconvenient to manage the captured images. This is especially true for up-to-date digital cameras that support various operational modes such as: still image capturing for image files (e.g. JPG, GIF, BMP etc.), motion picture capturing for motion picture files (e.g. AVI, MPG etc.), and recording for audio files (e.g. WAV, MP3 etc.). The present file managing method of the digital camera 10 is to automatically give each image a file name every time the digital camera 10 captures an image. The file name is a sequential number instead of a name given by the user, and different types of files will be saved in the same folder, such as DCIM folder according to the industry standard. Even if a folder having another name exists, the digital camera 10 cannot open it. Please refer to FIG. 3 showing the captured images shown by the electrical viewfinder 18 of the conventional digital camera 10 in FIG. 2. The digital camera 10 has stored image files (DC001-DC003), motion picture files (DC004-DC006) and audio files (DC007-DC009) all stored in the same folder. In other words, the image files are unarranged and difficult to search. Whenever the user wants to find a specific type of file, the files must be searched one by one using the control button set 20, which causes time to be wasted.
Moreover, as compact information products such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), and mp3 players become popular; data exchange between different types of apparatuses becomes necessary and must be improved. However, the file managing systems of different apparatuses are not always the same, preventing data exchange.